English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian Sir Isaac Newton FRS (1643 –1727). French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662). An engraving by John Cochran of English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday, FRS (1791 –1867). However, in each case, the symptoms (and insanity) abated once the source of mercury was removed. It is likely that the mercury vapor was the cause of his malady. As part of his research studies, Newton boiled several pounds of mercury a day just before his period of insanity between 16. Faraday ( Figure), Pascal ( Figure), and most probably Sir Isaac Newton ( Figure) were affected. Many other notable scientists have also suffered from mercury poisoning. German chemist Alfred Stock (1876 –1946). However, when the lab was cleaned of mercury the symptoms went away. In 1926 Alfred Stock ( Figure) and his research group all suffered from symptoms. They were given to violent headaches, tremors of the hands, “socially troublesome inflammation of the bladder”, loss of memory, and slow mental processes. Chemists doing research using large quantities of mercury were also affected. Hatters were not the only people that mercury caused a problem for. ![]() In particular he can be in no way described as shy! It is interesting that while Carroll's Mad Hatter is mad, he does not show the classic symptoms of mercury poisoning. The madness that was observed is the derivation of the phrase “mad as a hatter”. The hatters who shaped the felt inhaled large quantities of this dust were found to suffer from excessive salivation, erethism (presenting with excessive shyness, timidity and social phobia), and shaking of the limbs, which became known as hatter’s shakes. Unfortunately, when the felt was dried a fine dust was formed containing mercury. It was found that if mercury was added to the nitric acid, a better quality of felt was produced. This process was usually accomplished with nitric acid (HNO 3). ![]() Wool interlocks naturally due to the surface texture of the individual hairs, but rabbit and beaver have to be artificially roughened. Hats were made from felt, which is a non-woven textile of animal hair. The problems in this latter occupation will forever live on with one of the central characters in Lewis Carroll's Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland the Mad Hatter. Other jobs that exposed people to mercury were mirror makers and hatters (people who manufactured hats). ![]() It was found very early on that people who worked with mercury, in mining for example, had very bad health.
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